Assorted Articles in Astoria

If you were to Google (or Safari, or Yahoo, or whatever it’s called when you search up on another browser) “How to learn a language”, you would be met with generic advice like “learn to speak, listen, read, and write through consistent practice.”

NO KIDDING, GOOGLE

Then Duolingo will be suggested. Guaranteed.

Besides the internet’s extremely mixed (and strong) opinions on this little green owl’s methods for learning a language, advice on language learning is rather difficult to come by, but I have some strategies gathered here.

But, before I get into that, some background:

A year ago, I diligently practiced Spanish on Duolingo every day for 3 months and learned some vocabulary, and the Spanish course is one of the best courses. Even the Greek course is decent for someone in the brushing-up-on-vocab market. But will Duolingo alone do much?

NO

Am I a Duolingo hater though?

Meh. My reasons are more related to the use of AI and the guilt-tripping rather than the actual content, which can be of use IF (and only if) it’s paired with other learning methods.

So, now for the straight-forward language advice from a bilingual person who’s been trying to learn Spanish for school on her own because her teacher is an honest to goodness deadbeat.

1.Podcasts

Great for listening and some speaking, you can get the hang of pronunciation right off the bat, learn some vocabulary and sentence structure, and make good progress. They’re fairly easy to stick to if you listen to them in order at the same time each day (like during your daily commute) or if you do something quiet or mindless with your hands while you listen (I like to crochet). They’re great for killing otherwise empty time (the average person spend 10 DAYS out of the year commuting to work, search it up if you don’t believe me). Best of all, there are loads of podcasts on Spotify alone for any language level, from a beginner who can’t say “Hello” to someone advanced who can find interesting topics explained in detail.

2. Old School Studying

Make flashcards with vocabulary, write down word lists, read basic sentences off websites that offer common phrases translated. This is the what most people consider literal language studying, and it’s effective. Just make sure you don’t passively glance at the flashcards or glaze over the word lists and waste your time.

3.Language Apps

Yes, Duolingo falls into this category. Other apps, specifically ones that aren’t free, tend to be considered better though. They won’t make you fluent, but they can help in the vocabulary department, and most lessons are pretty short so you can make better use of small bits of down time.

4.Karaoke & songs

Fun & good for any skill level, you can master pronunciation. speaking, vocabulary, and your singing skill all in one. Plus, you’ll develop knowledge of the languages’s culture and about the country if you ever visit. (Culture-another thing everyone harps about, but they never say how to learn it, really…)

5. Nursery Rhymes

This is the beginner-friendly version of karaoke and music, but it’s perfect since it’ll teach you basic words that children know, and you likely won’t need a translation. Take Baby Shark. We all have the lyrics memorized (whether we like it or not) and can learn the names of family members (Baby, mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa) a basic animal (shark) and phrases (let’s go hunt), (run away), (safe at last), (it’s the end). Plus, everything is repeated several times so you can catch it. All of this perfectly summed up into a short and infectiously catchy song-perfect.

6. Switch your phone language

If you switch your phone language, you’ll learn everyday words, and -let’s be honest- you have most of your phone’s functions memorized. Or, make your AI assistant speak your target language with a Youtube tutorial and have chats. You can even add your target language to your phone’s keyboard as well so you can text people in a completely new language to show off your skills and keep you motivated while practicing. Maybe you’ll even inspire someone🤷

7: Yapping

Get an online speaker to chat with! (They’re fairly cheap and often fun to talk to)

Chat with a friend!

Order at a Mexican restaurant in Spanish! (Just an example. Don’t kill me if the guy behind the counter only knows French.)

Bottom Line: FIND AN EXCUSE TO YAP

8. Writing

Write your shopping list in your new language, or maybe journal if you’re more advanced. Just find an excuse to scribble down some non-English words and work on your writing skills while recalling what you know and reinforcing it.

9. TV, Movies, Youtube

Alright, I know a lot of you are gonna say that you’re not this advanced yet, but little kids learn to talk by watching others talk, so you’re going to learn that language by getting context clues from the visual part and understanding what you can. You can learn to understand the language at the speed it’s typically spoken at. Plus, if you can find a dubbed version of a movie or TV show you’ve already seen, even better.

10: Reading

Read anything you can get your hands on. Cram information into your head even if you don’t understand half of it. I say information because fantasy novels tend to contain words you’ll never use anywhere (alohomora?) and not your best bet if your goal is to learn fast. Like with movies and TV shows, I suggest books that you’ve read before so you’ll remember what certain translations were.

Well, these are all the methods that I’ve accumulated over my great many years. Please comment any methods that I didn’t mention, since we all want to know. Remember to practice a lot, especially at first. 🕊